The Atlanta HIDTA region is a principal drug distribution center for Mexican
drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) that supply illicit drugs to drug markets
in the eastern United States. These DTOs also use the region as a bulk cash
consolidation center, storing millions of dollars in suburban Atlanta stash
houses before transporting the cash to the Southwest Border area and Mexico.

The influence exerted by Mexican DTOs on the Atlanta HIDTA region is unmatched
by any other trafficking organization or group. Mexican DTOs with ties to the
Southwest Border area and Mexico supply the vast majority of powder cocaine,
ice methamphetamine, commercial-grade marijuana, and heroin available in the
Atlanta HIDTA region.

In 2008, violent acts committed by Mexican DTOs against other Mexican traffickers
increased in the Atlanta area; this violence is often initiated to collect money
owed from drug debts and to intimidate other drug traffickers in the region.

Shortages in wholesale quantities of powder cocaine first noted in 2007
continued to be reported by several law enforcement officers in the Atlanta
HIDTA region in 2008; law enforcement officers report that the price for cocaine
remains high.

Eradication data suggest that indoor cannabis cultivation decreased significantly
in Georgia, including Georgia counties in the Atlanta HIDTA region. The total
number of indoor cannabis plants eradicated in Georgia decreased 70 percent
from 2007 through 2008.

The Atlanta HIDTA region comprises Barrow, Bartow, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb,
Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett and Henry Counties, which compose a
large portion of the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan area, and Durham, Johnston,
Wake, Wayne, and Wilson Counties, which encompass most of the Raleigh metropolitan
area in North Carolina. (See
Figure 1.) Moreover, many HIDTA initiatives and investigations extend into counties
within the Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) that are adjacent to the
HIDTA region.1
(See Figure 2.)

The Atlanta area is the leading drug distribution and bulk cash consolidation
center for Mexican DTOs that supply illicit drugs, particularly powder cocaine,
to drug markets in the eastern United States and transport illicit drug proceeds
from those markets to the Southwest Border area and Mexico.2
The drug flow from the Atlanta HIDTA region has positioned it as a national-level
drug distribution center for many eastern U.S. drug markets. Mexican DTOs distribute
illicit drugs from the Atlanta HIDTA region to cities throughout the eastern United
States, including Baltimore, Maryland; Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio; Columbia, South
Carolina; Gainesville, Jacksonville, Miami, and Tampa, Florida; Memphis and Nashville,
Tennessee; Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Roanoke,
Virginia. Moreover, these DTOs distribute ice methamphetamine from Atlanta to southeastern
drug markets. The illicit drugs distributed from the Atlanta HIDTA region are generally
smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by Mexican traffickers and then through California
and Texas en route to the HIDTA region. Moreover, Mexican DTOs use the Atlanta area
as a bulk cash consolidation center, storing millions of dollars in suburban Atlanta
stash houses before transporting the cash to the Southwest Border area and Mexico.

The Atlanta HIDTA region has a highly accessible transportation system, including
major roadways that link it to the Southwest Border and major eastern U.S. drug
markets. (See Figure 2 and
Figure 3.) Mexican DTOs exploit the
Atlanta HIDTA region's geographic location between these areas to transport illicit
drugs to Atlanta and then on to eastern drug markets; these DTOs also transport
illicit drugs directly to distribution points in North Carolina for further distribution
to eastern drug markets. Mexican DTOs frequently transport illicit drugs into North
Carolina counties of the Atlanta HIDTA region from Atlanta using Interstate 85 or
from California using I-40.